Do Not Rebuild

In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul gives us an excellent principle by which to live in the new year: do not rebuild.

In chapter 2 Paul tells us that the apostle Peter was eating and mingling with the Gentiles, but when a pack of Jews showed up, Peter and the other Jews "acted hypocritically" (Galatians 2:13). However, Paul saw right through their actions. He knew that the man who had walked with Jesus knew quite well that Christ died for the Jew and the Gentile (Romans 1:16). So he called them out, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews" (Galatians 2:14).

Now Paul knew that someone had begun preaching a false Gospel among the Galatians; one that required circumcision for salvation. So for Peter to withdraw from the non- circumcised to be with the circumcised would only further confuse the Galatians. But Paul makes clear to the Galatians that the circumcision issue here turned out to be the hypocrisy of Peter.

In Acts 10:9-16 Peter has a vision in relation to clean and unclean food. After Peter argues about the cleanliness of the food, he is told, "What God has made clean, do not call common" (10:15). Peter was freed to eat as he pleased. The vision has continued purpose. Peter, in a conversation with Cornelius, a Gentile, relates his vision to their interaction, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection" (10:28).

Back in Galatians, Paul knows that Peter has been told he could eat as he pleased, like a Gentile, and Paul knows that Peter has been told that he could associate across Jew/Gentile lines. So why ever would Peter withhold his fellowship with Gentiles when the Jews showed up? Why should the man who eats like a Gentile act as though Jews are more apt for salvation because of circumcision?

Paul continues.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

-Galatians 2:15, 16

Then in verse 17 Paul says, "But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!"

John MacArthur explains this verse in The MacArthur Bible Commentary:

"If the Judaizers' (the circumcision-happy Jews) doctrine was correct, then Paul, Peter, Barnabas, and the other Jewish believers fell back into the category of sinners because they had been eating and fellowshiping with Gentiles, who according to the Judaizers were unclean. If the Judaizers were right, then Christ was wrong and had been teaching people to sin because He taught that food could not contaminate a person (Mark 7:19)."

Paul then nails his point home in verse 18, "For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor."

Peter "stood condemned" (2:11). Although he had heard the words come out of Jesus' mouth "Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled" (Mark 7:18-19)? and had a mighty vision in Acts 10, he still rebuilt the notion that practicing Jewish tradition somehow was contributory to salvation and proved himself a transgressor.

Paul wants so badly for the Galatians to understand that "a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 2:16). He must ensure that the law, as a salvation requirement, is torn down and he must not allow it to be rebuilt by Peter, the Judaizers, or even himself. Like he says in chapter 1,

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

-Galatians 1:8, 9

These principles are so helpful for us entering into a new year. Two-thousand eight was a year of God tearing down my self-righteous attitude, exposing idols, and refining my views of "not justified by works of the law, but though faith in Jesus Christ." I am praying that 2009 would be a year where things that I view as supplements to salvation would be stripped away. And at the same time that I would not "rebuild" what has already been "torn down" "like a dog that returns to his vomit" (Proverbs 26:11). 

In 2009, do not rebuild.